What’s Alkaline Water and What Water Treatment Method Creates It?

Is Alkalinizing Water a Worthwhile Water Treatment?

There are so many water treatment methods and types of water out there. Spring water, mineral water, filtered water, pure water, reverse osmosis water, ionized water, well water, distilled water, alkaline water, and the list goes on. It can be hard figuring out what they all mean and which ones are actually good for you. We’ve already talked about many of those listed, but what is alkaline water?

Alkaline water is a type of water created by raising the pH of water. Proponents believe it has properties that make it helpful in fighting cancer and staying better-hydrated, but this is still highly disputed.

Let’s clear up some of the confusion. We’ll take a look at what alkaline water is, what it might mean for your health, and what’s the best water treatment method for acquiring it.

What Is Alkaline Water?

Alkaline water is water that has a pH greater than 7. In chemistry, pH stands for “potential of hydrogen,” and it’s a measure of acidity or alkalinity.

Almost all substances have a pH between 0 and 14. A pH of 7 is neutral, neither acidic nor alkaline. The lower than 7 the pH goes, the more acidic a substance is. The higher than 7 it goes, the more alkaline it is.

Pure water has a pH of 7, so it’s neither acidic nor alkaline. However, the water you encounter in daily life is almost never pure water. It contains minerals and other substances that raise or lower the pH. Typically, the normal pH range for surface water is about 6.5 to 8.5. The normal pH range for groundwater is about 6 to 8.5. Water that’s been treated may have a pH that’s outside those ranges. This means your water might be slightly acidic or slightly alkaline.

What Might Alkaline Water Mean for Your Health?

Many people consider alkaline water to be healthier for you and even think it can cure cancer. Still, this is just a theory.

Can Alkaline Water Really Fight Cancer?

The reasoning goes that the cells in your body have a pH around 7. They’re also full of water—as you may know, humans are about 60% water, with higher concentrations in vital organs.

However, cancer grows in acidic, low-pH environments. Therefore, raising the pH of your cells by replenishing them with alkaline water should help protect you against cancer. This would “balance out” your body’s pH levels, deprive cancer cells of the environment they thrive in, and slow or stop cancer growth.

Many people out there claim that alkaline water helped cure them of their cancer. In places such as the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Survivors Network, patients and survivors have swap stories and describe their experiences and recommendations, and alkaline water comes up as a topic of discussion.

Similarly, some doctors have written in favor of the treatment. For example, Dr. Keiichi Morishita describes in her book The Hidden Truth of Cancer how alkaline water is regularly served to cancer patients in Asian countries.

Many companies capitalize on this and make a successful industry out of selling high-pH water. This includes brands like Essentia, Ethos, Culligan, and Evamor. One of their selling points in this regard is that alkaline water is generally better at rehydrating.

There hasn’t been conclusive research on the matter yet, so we can’t prove or disprove whether alkaline water actually has any cancer-inhibiting properties. That’s not what this post is about. It’s up to you to draw your own conclusions on whether or not you want alkaline water. We’re just here to let you know what alkaline water is, what people say about it, and what’s the best water treatment solution to get it.